Monday, March 31, 2014

Tompkins County Public Library will celebrate
Women’s History Month with “The Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Influence on Women’s
Rights,” a presentation by Sally Roesch Wagner, March 31 at 6 p.m. in the
Thaler/Howell Programming Room.

Made possible by the New York State Council for
Humanities, this program will offer a glimpse into the social, political,
religious and economic liberties Iroquois women were afforded centuries before
the suffrage movement and how those liberties inspired American suffragists,
including Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Matilda Joslyn Gage.

Roesch Wagner, the founding and executive director
of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation, is a professor of women’s studies, one
of the first women to receive a doctorate in women’s studies in the United
States, the nation’s foremost expert on Gage, and a founder of one of the first
women’s studies programs at California State University--Sacramento.

This program is free and open to the public.For more information, contact Carrie
Wheeler-Carmenatty at (607) 272-4557 extension 248 or cwheeler@tcpl.org.

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Tompkins
County Public Library will welcome members of Mu Phi Epsilon for a special
musical storytime March 29 at 3 p.m. in the BorgWarner Community Room.

Children and families of all ages are invited to join students from Mu Phi
Epsilon, a professional and co-educational music fraternity at Ithaca
College. Fraternity members will read and provide musical accompaniment
to John Lithgow's “Never Play Music Right Next to the Zoo.”Following
the reading, members will offer an "Instrument Petting Zoo," in which
children can look, listen, touch, and play with a wide range of musical
instruments.For
more information, visit: http://tcpl.org/kids/programs.php or contact the Youth Services Department at (607)
272-4557 extension 275.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Tompkins
County Public Library will host Lamar Herrin for a reading and signing of his
timely novel, “Fractures,” March 27 at 6 p.m. in the Thaler/Howell Programming Room.An
environmental novel set in a town with recognizable similarities to Ithaca, “Fractures” provides an often overlooked
humanity to the scientific issue of fracking.“Fractures”
explores, through the intricately-presented, fictional Joyner family, the
connections and conflicts innate to those faced with selling family land to
natural gas companies for the purposes of drilling.The book has received praise from The Washington Post, The
Chicago Tribune,
Booklist and Library Journal.Herrin,
a Cornell University professor emeritus, has received numerous awards and
honors for his teaching and writing.He
has published several novels, stories and memoirs.This
program is free and open to the public.Copies of “Fractures” will be available for purchase courtesy of Buffalo
Street Books.For
more information, contact Carrie Wheeler-Carmenatty at (607) 272-4557 extension
248 or cwheeler@tcpl.org.

Monday, March 17, 2014

Tompkins County Public
Library will host “Creative Mash-Up,” a free, six-part writing workshop
combining visual images and writing, beginning March 17.This weekly workshop will be held
Mondays from 2 to 4 p.m. in the Library’s BorgWarner Community Room—West.Facilitated by Irene “Zee” Zahava, “Creative
Mash-Up” will offer beginning and experienced writers an opportunity to create
stories, poems, essays and memoirs by responding to unusual combinations of
visual images and texts. Zahava is a short story writer,
haiku poet, small press publisher, published anthologist, former owner of Smedley's
Book Shop and the founder of Zee’s Writing Studio.This program is free and open to the
public; however, advance registration is required. To register, contact
Zahava at (607) 273-4675 orzee@twcny.rr.com.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Tompkins
County Public Library and Cornell University’s Science Engineering and
Educational Development program will host “The Wonders of Drones”, a
family-friendly science program exploring the science of drones, March 16 from
2 to 3:30 p.m. in the Library’s Thaler/Howell Programming Room.

Through fun-filled, hands-on activities including an interactive
signaling and circuit games, families with children ages five and older will
learn that
a drone is a flying machine that incorporates sensors and circuits and how they
are used in science and engineering.This program is free and open to the
public. For more information, contact Brenna Funfar at brf38@cornell.edu.

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Tompkins
County Public Library will host “It’s Bigger on the Inside: How
Imagination Opens Us to the World Beyond Ourselves,” a presentation by
award-winning novelist, teacher, poet, playwright, and activist, Jewelle Gomez,
Saturday March 15 at 3 p.m. in the BorgWarner Community Room.

Presented in
collaboration with Cornell University and Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Multicultural
Resource Center, “It’s Bigger on the Inside,” will explore, in part, the
intersection of Gomez’ life and libraries.

Gomez is the author
of the double Lambda Award-winning novel, The Gilda Stories (Firebrand
Books), and seven other volumes. She has penned numerous essays and film
and literary criticism for publications including: the Village Voice, MS.
Magazine, the Advocate, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Black
Scholar. She is the president of the San Francisco Library Commission
and was a successful litigant in the lawsuit challenging California’s anti-gay
marriage law.

For more information,
contact Carrie Wheeler-Carmenatty at (607) 272-4557 extension 248 or cwheeler@tcpl.org.

Friday, March 7, 2014

Tompkins
County Public Library will host “YardWorks: Garden Design for Native
Birds,” an exhibit and expert advice for creating a perfect backyard habitat
for native birds, during Downtown Ithaca’s March 7 Gallery Night.This
informative exhibit, on display through March 15, includes design boards from
the YardWorks Project, a program of Cornell University’s Senior Design
Studio. Seventeen Fall Creek residents recently participated in the
project, which led to the creation of site-specific designs for creating a
better bird habitat and healthier environment in neighborhood yards.The
Library exhibit will illustrate--through the design boards—neighborhood-level
environmental analyses, urban ecological design methods and individual site
designs developed as a result of the YardWorks Project.The
Gallery Night event will offer an opportunity for attendees to explore the
exhibit and to discuss the Project with some of the participating students. A
5:30 p.m. presentation by Joshua Cerra, professor of Landscape Architecture at
Cornell University will offer information and insight about the YardWorks
Project. Cerra’s talk will be followed by a 6 p.m. illustrated discussion
by Joel Baines, author of “Native Plants for Native Birds: A Guide to
Planting for Birds In and Around Ithaca, New York” and the book’s photographer,
David Ruppert, who will provide information on selecting native plants to promote
healthy habitats for native birds and pollinators. Copies of their book
will be available for purchase, with all proceeds supporting the Cayuga Bird
Club.Both
presentations will take place in the Library’s BorgWarner Community Room.
The exhibit has been made possible by Cornell University’s Senior Design Studio
and Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County.

Also on
display during Gallery Night will be the exhibit “For the Joy of Dancing” and
wood sculptures by Eva Capabianco and Gerry Monaghan.

Entry to the
Library after 5 p.m. will be through the BorgWarner Community Room door,
located next to TCAT’s Green Street bus shelter.

For more
information about Gallery Night or other Library exhibits, contact Sally Grubb
at (607) 272-4557 extension 232 or sgrubb@tcpl.org.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Tompkins
County Public Library will launch its Four Seasons Book Club March 6
with a discussion of Oprah’s Book Club selection, “The Invention of Wings,” by
Sue Monk Kidd.Inspired
by the true story of suffragist and abolitionist Sarah Grimké, “The Invention
of Wings,” explores the complex relationship between Grimké, the privileged
daughter of a Southern plantation owner, and Handful, her family’s compliant,
yet strong-willed, slave. Through alternating first-person narrative, Kidd
masterfully illustrates the struggles of each woman to break free from their
oppressors in pursuit of their dreams.The
Library’s Four Seasons Book Club is free and open to the public;
however, advance registration is required. The Club will meet quarterly,
with additional meetings planned for May 1, August 7 and October 2. Club meetings will take place from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the BorgWarner Community Room.A
limited number of copies of “The Invention of Wings” will be available to
borrow for preregistered participants.For
more information or to register, contact Adult Services Librarian Teresa
Vadakin at (607) 272-4557 extension 272 or tvadakin@tcpl.org.

Saturday, March 1, 2014

Girls in grades five through eight and the special women in
their lives are invited to attend Tompkins County Public Library’s
Mother/Daughter Book Club.The Mother/Daughter Book Club will meet from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. in
the Library’s Thaler/Howell Programming Room.Facilitated by author and educator Emily Rhoads Johnson, the Club
provides a wonderful opportunity for participants to learn about themselves and
others by discussing literature in a welcoming, judgment-free
environment. Upcoming meeting dates and titles to be discussed are:

March 1—“Northward to the Moon” by Polly Horvath

March 22—“My Side of the Mountain” by Jean Craighead George

April
26—“The City of Ember” by Jeanne DuPrau

Participants may attend one or all of the meetings. Registration
is not required, and refreshments will be served.

For more information, contact the Youth Services Department at
(607) 272-4557 extension 275.